Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Why the GOP is in Trouble for 2014/2016

Today at The Daily Beast, Michael Tomasky, has an excellent article asking how bad the GOP needs Chris Christie. As I read the article, I was nodding my head in agreement. Then I got to the part I fully agree with on how the establishment GOP has allowed the nutcase hard right (my words) take over the GOP and are afraid to say much for fear of a split of the Party and they will be wandering the political wilderness for years.

What the Republican Party Establishment has done in playing to the hard right was to toss more centrist people like me under the bus. They refused to listen to us in 2010 that the Tea Party was bad for the GOP as they were from the hard right, the John Birchers, militia, anti-immigration, and in fact pretty racists at least from what I saw around me. Instead of listening, they embraced the hard right and their earth is 7,500 year old, creationism theories along with demanding that public schools teach the Bible but they didn't stop there. In short order they started condemning public schools where all of my three children received an outstanding education in various states except for Massachusetts and Ohio. Didn't make sense until all of a sudden the Charter school movement took off and realized it was run by big GOP donors in places I knew so I assume it is all over.

You could say that 2010 stands out as the year the lunatic, my way or no way fringe was elected to the Halls of Congress followed by more lunatics in 2012. Their racism and hatred for anyone who are not white knows no bounds. The idiots at the RNC hold seminars in how to speak to people so not to irritate them. It is not working. As a woman, I couldn't be any more disgusted with the GOP today and their war against women. Women of all ages deserve better then the Republican Party. If women are staying in the GOP, then it is like a woman who is an abused spouse who cannot bring herself to leave.

The fact that the GOP establishment needs to come face-to-face with is that they have no one to blame for this but themselves. They’ve reached the point where they almost have to have a Northeasterner like Christie to run for president, just as they had to settle for Romney last time. They’ve let their party go so far off the deep end that practically no Republican officeholder from any other region of the country could appeal to enough moderates in enough purple and blue states to win back the territory the party ceded to the Democrats in the last two elections.

Remember: the Republicans come into the next presidential election with 206 reliable electoral votes from states their nominees have won at least four of the last six elections. The Democrats’ corresponding number is 257 (just 13 shy of the victory threshold). These tallies leave five states on the table: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, and Nevada. And I’m not even sure if, with Clinton in the race, if the last three could even be called purple anymore. The Republicans have a lot of territory to reclaim.

They were, and I suppose still are, hoping that Christie could win it back for two reasons. First, and more obviously, he’d give them back the White House. But second, a Christie presidential win could paper over the profound and disturbing problems with today’s GOP. This is a party deeply in need of an internal thrashing of heads to pull it out of loony-land and back toward the center. Republican grandees know this, of course, but they’d much rather not have to go through this civil war. Indeed, the war could be cleansing enough that the party splits into two. Only Christie can save them from that possibility. The party would just become whatever Christie wanted it to be, and the Big Conversations could all be shelved.

Pretty high stakes. So the establishment isn’t going to give up on Christie easily. And of course he can enjoy the benefit in these next weeks and months of becoming a more sympathetic figure to the hard right than he’s ever been, because all he has to do to please that crowd is carry on about how the East Coast liberal media are trying to do him in. And it may just work.

But ultimately, facts are facts. And if the facts finish him off, and the GOP is stuck with Cruz-Rubio-Paul, or even a right-wing governor like Scott Walker, the establishment will be reaping what it’s spent the Obama years sowing: a party that cares more about feeding its base’s fever-dreams than being nationally electable. And that’s where things stand, as Christie begins a term that there’s a sporting chance he may not even be able to finish.

Wouldn't take a bet on Christie finishing his term. He reminds me of Richard Nixon only nastier. The day Christie said he wasn't a bully, almost spilled Coke on my keyboard which would have meant off to the OU IT Store to pick up another Apple keyboard. Next time I am on Campus Corner might pick up another one as a backup just in case.

I burst out laughing at Christie because he that typical New Jersey bully. The only thought that came in my mind was the #1 bad GOP candidate in 2010 "I am not a witch" Christine O'Donnell, GOP candidate for DE Senate, who was wearing a black dress when she said it. She had the full support of the Tea Party and establishment GOP when she was one of the biggest loons I have seen run for office. She accused her opponent, Rep Mike Castle, in the primary of lurking behind bushes outside her apartment in order to spy on her. Yet she won the primary, but fortunately for the Senate, she lost big in the general although she got a lot more votes then I thought as she was not fit mentally to be in the Senate. Although looking back, she would fit in well with Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, and others who have gone over the edge.

Then the GOP had Sharron Angle opposing Harry Reid who has never been my favorite Senator as his lack of backbone always made me wonder about him. That said I donated to his campaign because Angle was the #2 bad candidate who after winning primary forgot to campaign or debate and had a campaign manager from MO who spent more time in MO then in Nevada. She was fully backed by the Tea Party movement.

Must not forget #3 Joe Miller of AK. Talk about loons, he is stranger then Sarah Palin which gives you some idea how bad he would have been in the Senate. He beat a sitting Senator Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary and then many GOP, Indy's, and Democrats encouraged Murkowski to run as a write-in candidate. GOP laughed at her attempt but then Miller said Eskimos and other tribes who did not speak English should not be allowed to vote. These people are native to Alaska and have been there a long longer the white man. With Sarah Palin, the former Alaska Governor and GOP VP candidate on Miller's side, Murkowski won the write-in over Miller whose name was on the ballot. Then the Miller camp tried to throw out ballots that didn't have her name spelled correctly but got overruled if the intent was there. Funniest election I have seen and enjoyed watching Miller go down.

That was a sampling of 2010 hard right candidates for Senate backed by the Tea Party. There were more but those are my Top Three looney candidates. It only got worse in 2012 when Texas sent Ted Cruz to the Senate. It could have been even worse but GOP candidates for Senate in MO and IN made total fools of themselves talking about rape and how a woman cannot get pregnant from rape.

Couldn't take it any more -- office holders I had considered reasonably sane people were sounding like the hard right loons so I told the GOP and their 'my way or no way' crowd to shove it and joined Republicans for Obama and then Obama campaign. That began my donating to Democrats and working for their election. Before leaving the GOP, I never posted on Twitter -- was a member but had maybe 20 tweets if that. Since telling the GOP establishment and the hard right where they could go, I have over 10,000 tweets and loving every minute of leaving the GOP behind and meeting new, reasonable people on Twitter.

Started with Republicans for Obama and then Unite Blue finding a home with like minded people. Then it expanded to others who share the same philosophy of helping others have a better life along with not telling people how to live. I want clean air and clean water, environmental regulations enforced, racism ended, every person has a right to vote, women's rights upheld, veterans jobs bill passed along with other jobs bills, access to medical care and the list goes on. Those are issues that today's hard right Republican Party oppose and no amount of seminars on how to talk to voters is going to change their basic beliefs as they come out almost daily attacking the President and calling him all sorts of names like school yard bullies.

GOP refuses to acknowledge that a lot of us have told them to go jump, take a hike, shove it, and some a lot worse. I am still getting snail mail telling me to renew my 2014 membership in the RNC. If I had received my phone calls, email, and snail mail there is no way I would have kept me on their list.

This is what is wrong today with all of their GOP bogus attacks on the President calling him all kinds of names and GOP Senators refusing to allow him to appoint people to his Administration. Harry Reid and the Democrats ended the filibuster by the GOP minority on appointments because a President of either party that is in office has a right to their own appointees. GOP claims to be the Party of the Constitution and the only Party that loves America but by their actions it is just opposite as pointed out by Friedman of the NY Times: